R o b e r t D r u c k e r A r t

English Bay, 2003

Herons, seabirds, water and light... recalled from countless walks over many years in British Columbia. The happiest moments of my life were there on the Vancouver seawall, walking, dreaming, and bathing in the sea with my beloved wife and daughter. These are remembered in acrylic and sumi ink, some with titles taken from Proust's lyrical descriptions of the beaches of northwest France: “Of Space Too Airy and Empty, And Of Salt” — “As Into a Shower of Pearls” — “An Infinity of Love Ephemeral” — express as well the beauty of this place and the deep emotional attachment I have to it.

But the places that I’ve loved so long

Will dissolve into the grey

And I’ll not always walk along

The wall by English Bay.

Come back, will you promise me?

And walk the wall beside the sea

And linger in the chilly rain

Beside the bay with me.

—excerpt from “Second Beach”, 2021 (R. Drucker)